Daly: We smelt an advantage and we got a response

“One day in February” was Anthony Daly’s way of putting into perspective a six-point win seven days after a 13-point defeat.

“Mindset is everything, isn’t it? Waterford won as well. These league days, they’re funny. We’d a bit of a meeting on Tuesday night and we trained hard Tuesday and Thursday. We asked for a response and I think we got a response. We missed a few chances to make it comfortable for ourselves. Clare probably targeted last week something savage at home to Kilkenny and it’s probably hard then to be 100% tuned in for the following week.

“We smelt an advantage there and it’s good to see lads back in form. A lot of the lads like Liam (Rushe) at centre-back set the tone from early. We could have done a bit more for our scoring difference but we didn’t. We’re delighted with the win.”

Daly had spoken after the Galway game about a number of the senior players who disappointed in Salthill. They acknowledged the error of their ways in the meeting. “There was no hiding and they held their hands up.

“Look, it’s one day in February, the same day as last week was one day in February. We’re not too over the moon because we know there’s a lot of work ahead. Some of our point-scoring attempts at the end were poor.”

Davy Fitzgerald said he had an inkling all six teams would have two points after the opening two rounds. He acknowledged his team weren’t as sharp as they were against Kilkenny in Ennis.

“We weren’t going to be as competitive today. Dublin were much better, to tell you the truth. They were a lot more hungry. They won a lot more ball in the rucks. They cleaned us in puck outs on both sides of the field. They dominated that game. In saying we could have taken three or four points at the end — we went for goals from frees — it could have been a lot closer. But I still think it would have been unjust if we were closer.”

Fitzgerald reasoned it was always going to be difficult to raise his players for the second time in seven days.

” You’re not going to have a performance every day.”